1. The UltraLight Program
UltraLight: An Overview and Update
Shawn McKee
University of Michigan

2. UltraLight Topics Introduction: What is the UltraLight Program?
History
Program Goals and Details
Current Status and Summary

3. What is UltraLight?
UltraLight is a program to explore the integration of cutting-edge network technology with the grid computing and data infrastructure of HEP/Astronomy
The program intends to explore network configurations from common shared infrastructure (current IP networks) thru dedicated optical paths point-to-point.
A critical aspect of UltraLight is its integration with two driving application domains in support of their national and international eScience collaborations: LHC-HEP and eVLBI-Astronomy
The Collaboration includes:
Caltech
Florida Int. Univ.
MIT
Univ. of Florida
Univ. of Michigan
UC Riverside
BNL
FNAL
SLAC
UCAID/Internet2

4. Some History…
The UltraLight Collaboration was originally formed in Spring 2003 in response to an NSF Experimental Infrastructure in Networking (EIN) RFP in ANIR
After not being selected, the program was refocused on LHC/HEP and eVLBI/Astronomy and submitted to “Physics at the Information Frontier” (PIF) in MPS at NSF
Collaboration was notified at the end of 2003 that the PIF program was being postponed 1 year. Suggested that proposals be redirected to the NSF ITR program.
ITR Deadline is February 25th, 2004.

5. HENP Network Roadmap
LHC Physics will require large bandwidth capability over a globally distributed network. The HENP Bandwidth Roadmap is shown in the table below:

6. eVLBI and UltraLight
e-VLBI is a major thrust of UltraLight and can directly complement LHC-HEPs mode of using the network, allowing us to explore new strategies for network conditioning and bandwidth management.
The e-VLBI work under this proposal will be multi-pronged in an effort to leverage the many new capabilities provided by UltraLight network and to provide the national and international VLBI community with advanced tools and services that are tailored to the e-VLBI application.
e-VLBI stands to benefit from an UltraLight infrastructure in numerous ways:
Higher sensitivity
Faster turnaround
Lower costs
Quick diagnostics and tests
New correlation methods
e-VLBI will provide a different eScience perspective and validate the operation and efficiency of network bandwidth sharing between disparate scientific groups

7. UltraLight Architecture
UltraLight envisions extending and augmenting the existing grid computing infrastructure (currently focused on CPU/storage) to include the network as an integral component.
A second aspect is strengthening and extending “end-to-end” monitoring and planning

8. UltraLight Proposal Outline

9. Workplan and Phased Deployment
UltraLight envisions a 4 year program to deliver a new, high-performance, network-integrated infrastructure:
Phase I will last 12 months and focus on deploying the initial network infrastructure and bringing up first services
Phase II will last 18 months and concentrate on implementing all the needed services and extending the infrastructure to additional sites
Phase III will complete UltraLight and last 18 months. The focus will be on a transition to production in support of LHC Physics and eVLBI Astronomy

10. UltraLight Network: PHASE I
Implementation via “sharing” with HOPI/NLR
MIT not yet “optically” coupled

11. UltraLight Network: PHASE II
Move toward multiple “lambdas”
Bring in BNL and MIT

12. UltraLight Network: PHASE III
Move into production
Optical switching fully enabled amongst primary sites
Integrated international infrastructure

13. Equipment and Interconnects
The UltraLight optical switching topology is shown
UltraLight plans to integrate data caches and CPU resources to provide integration testing and optimization

14. UltraLight Network
UltraLight is a hybrid packet- and circuit-switched network infrastructure employing ultrascale protocols and dynamic building of optical paths to provide efficient fair-sharing on long range networks up to the 10 Gbps range, while protecting the performance of real-time streams and enabling them to coexist with massive data transfers.
Circuit switched: “Intelligent photonics” (using wavelengths dynamically to construct and tear down wavelength paths rapidly and on demand through cost-effective wavelength routing) are a natural match to the peer-to-peer interactions required to meet the needs of leading-edge, data-intensive science.
Packet switched: Many applications can effectively utilize the existing, cost effective networks provided by shared packet switched infrastructure. A subset of applications require more stringent guarantees than a best-effort network can provide, and so we are planning to utilize MPLS as an itermediate option

15. MPLS Topology
Current network engineering knowledge is insufficient to predict what combination of “best-effort” packet switching, QoS-enabled packet switching, MPLS and dedicated circuits will be most effective in supporting these applications.
We will use MPLS and other modes of bandwidth management, along with dynamic adjustments of optical paths and their provisioning, in order to develop the means to optimize end-to-end performance among a set of virtualized disk servers, a variety of real-time processes, and other traffic flows.

16. Logical Diagram of UltraLight Grid Enabled Analysis
An “UltraLight” user’s perspective of the system:
Important to note that the system helps interpret and optimize itself while “summarizing” the details for ease of use

17. Summary and Status
UltraLight promises to deliver the critical missing component for future eScience: the integrated, managed network
We have a strong team in place, as well as a detailed plan, to provide the needed infrastructure and services for production use by LHC turn-on at the end of 2007
Currently we are preparing the proposal for ITR submission by February 25, 2004
We will need to augment the proposal with additional grants to enable us to reach our goal of having UltraLight be a pervasive and effective infrastructure for LHC physics and eVLBI Astronomy

18. Questions? (or Answers)?